Native American Theatre began as communal celebrations and ancient rituals to represent the religious outlook and shared values of indigenous America. It is full of cosmic significant that dots it apart from the ordinary world, and the audience acts as participants rather than spectators. Native American drama is diverse, ranging from one person dramas to Navajo chantways, which are 100-hour long celebrations involving entire communities.
Native American Theatre has encountered numerous difficulties. White conquests destroyed native nations, and their drama was destroyed with them. The confinement to reversions had a negative influence on the drama of nations that survived. While many nations disappeared over time, some survived and continued to thrive.
Native American Theatre can be difficult to approach. One difficultly lies in that there are many dramas, conceivably as many as there are cultures. With the affiliations that Natives recognize, scholars have grouped natives in sever different ways: their languages, material and economic cultures, religions, sociological and geographical relationships, and by their history of their relations with European.
Theses differences will necessarily result in dramatic events, especially when the culture preserves in its dramatic ritual attributes of rarer times, which is what usually happens with events of religious significance. Each nation will have its own unique drama. Considering the variety of nations that exist, it is not surprising that native drama has been given little attention by students of the theatre and of students of Native studies. The studies tend to be over generalized, and people are content to describe rather than analyze.
One generalization that exists is that there was little that any Native American living in a traditional community would do that was not charged with religious significance. In reality, fundamentally, Native rituals are two beliefs that have few direct counterparts for Euro-Americans: 1. The concept of linear time, and 2. The concept of a dimension-less sacred place. These two concepts are congruent, almost identical, for each point in tome or space is infinitely large, extending out from a sacred event to all creation, yet located around the event in a way that assures the security of the participants.
Native drama is only partly delimited by calling it an art form, although it is less than that. It is more accurately described in terms of of its actors, setting, plot, dialogue, gestures, costumes, movements, and so forth. With these considered, the range of events that be demand the label drama is very broad. When an event is charged with significance, it establishes and maintains a tension that extends to all involved, including both the performers and audience.
Today, native dramas can be in these traditional forms or in more modern forms of native playwrights. These playwrights have been found in companies such as the Indian Actors' Workshops, which was founded in the late 1960s. Between 1968-1970, the Santa Fe Theatre Project produced a number of plays by Natives at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Many other Native theatre companies and workshops formed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Native American Theatre has encountered numerous difficulties. White conquests destroyed native nations, and their drama was destroyed with them. The confinement to reversions had a negative influence on the drama of nations that survived. While many nations disappeared over time, some survived and continued to thrive.
Native American Theatre can be difficult to approach. One difficultly lies in that there are many dramas, conceivably as many as there are cultures. With the affiliations that Natives recognize, scholars have grouped natives in sever different ways: their languages, material and economic cultures, religions, sociological and geographical relationships, and by their history of their relations with European.
Theses differences will necessarily result in dramatic events, especially when the culture preserves in its dramatic ritual attributes of rarer times, which is what usually happens with events of religious significance. Each nation will have its own unique drama. Considering the variety of nations that exist, it is not surprising that native drama has been given little attention by students of the theatre and of students of Native studies. The studies tend to be over generalized, and people are content to describe rather than analyze.
One generalization that exists is that there was little that any Native American living in a traditional community would do that was not charged with religious significance. In reality, fundamentally, Native rituals are two beliefs that have few direct counterparts for Euro-Americans: 1. The concept of linear time, and 2. The concept of a dimension-less sacred place. These two concepts are congruent, almost identical, for each point in tome or space is infinitely large, extending out from a sacred event to all creation, yet located around the event in a way that assures the security of the participants.
Native drama is only partly delimited by calling it an art form, although it is less than that. It is more accurately described in terms of of its actors, setting, plot, dialogue, gestures, costumes, movements, and so forth. With these considered, the range of events that be demand the label drama is very broad. When an event is charged with significance, it establishes and maintains a tension that extends to all involved, including both the performers and audience.
Today, native dramas can be in these traditional forms or in more modern forms of native playwrights. These playwrights have been found in companies such as the Indian Actors' Workshops, which was founded in the late 1960s. Between 1968-1970, the Santa Fe Theatre Project produced a number of plays by Natives at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Many other Native theatre companies and workshops formed in the 1960s and 1970s.